Our electric cars are an important step towards a more sustainable society, but the cars and their batteries can do so much more than eliminate tailpipe emissions. For example, did you know that stationary electric cars have the potential to power your house, your appliances or even return power to the energy grid?
To capitalise on that potential and help support the transition to a smarter, more sustainable and more efficient energy grid, we’re now launching Volvo Cars Energy Solutions. It’s a completely new business unit that will offer energy storage and charging-related technologies and services which form the connective tissue between our cars, our customers’ lives, the efficient use of energy and society at large.
For example, bi-directional charging is a technology that allows an electric car to give back extra battery power to a compatible grid, helping to balance the grid during peak hours and reduce the need for fossil-generated electricity. Our new flagship, the fully electric EX90 SUV, will be the first Volvo car equipped with all the necessary hardware and (over time) software to enable bi-directional charging and direct energy storage from solar.
Together with Göteborg Energi Nät AB, the local grid company in our Swedish hometown of Gothenburg, we’re now launching one of the first vehicle-to-grid (V2G) pilot programmes that aims to test such V2G technologies on the local energy grid and in a home environment with real customers. The pilot deliberately uses a low-cost AC wallbox, because it will help to accelerate widespead adoption of the technology.
The pilot project not only aims to gain acceptance from a grid company and to demonstrate to other grid companies that V2G programmes can provide tangible benefits, but to create a testing arena for new technologies that are central to the future of Volvo Cars outside our labs.
“With bi-directional charging, you can use your car battery as an extra energy supply, for example to provide power to your home, other electric devices or another electric Volvo car,” said Alexander Petrofski, the new head of Volvo Cars Energy Solutions. “The next step would be to enable this feature all around Sweden, and hopefully that will pave the way for even broader acceptance of similar charging and energy storage services around Europe.”
